The present invention relates to a network for the operation and remote monitoring of one or more wirelessly connected hygiene or sanitary appliances. More particularly, radio frequency (RF) transmitters and receivers replace hard wire connections between a triggering device, an appliance and a network node. Even more particularly, short range wireless communication between the triggering device and appliance utilizes low frequency radio signals while long range wireless communication to the network node utilizes high frequency RF.
Hygiene and sanitary appliances normally found in a public washroom typically include a urinal with a flush valve, a toilet with a flush valve, a sanitizer, a faucet, a showerhead, a soap dispenser, a paper towel dispenser, a hand dryer, a room deodorizer, among others. Such appliances may be operated by an individual through a triggering device such as an infra-red (IR) sensor or a manual switch which is located near or at the appliance and hard-wired to the appliances' electric operator.
There are environments in which it is not possible or desirable to have a hard-wired connection between the triggering device, which causes operation of the appliance, and the appliance itself. For example, in a toilet the electric operator for its flush valve may be behind a wall or partition and it is not practical to have the triggering device hard-wired to the flush valve. Similarly, there may be instances in which the flush valve for a urinal is behind a wall and it is not cost effective to have a hard-wire connection between the triggering device of the flush valve and the flush valve itself.
Further, in some washroom environments it may be desirable to have a control board which controls and preferably monitors the use and operation of all of the sanitary appliances within a certain area. This area could be a washroom or several washrooms located within a short range. Control boards are especially useful in washrooms in large institutions, especially buildings with washrooms open to the public. The control board would again require hard wire connections to each appliance and triggering device. The use of hard-wire connections may be difficult, costly and complicated especially considering the number of appliances and distances between the appliances and control board. In addition, in such an environment the wiring may subject to vandalism, corrosion and malfunction. Replacement of the hard-wire connection with a radio link has many advantages, including cost, security, reliability and ease of maintenance.
Hard-wired connections increase the difficulty and expense of establishing and maintaining local networks of triggering devices, appliances and control boards and prevent their widespread use. In addition, the difficulty and expense of hard-wired connections is only exacerbated by adding a network node for the global control, monitoring and information gathering of many localized networks consisting of control boards, triggering devices, and appliances throughout a building or institution.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/704,224, which is incorporated by reference herein and made a part hereof, discloses a system of remote operation of hygiene or sanitary appliances through RF links thereby eliminating the hard-wire connections between a triggering device, appliance and control board, if used.
In addition to creating a wirelessly connected local network of a triggering device, appliance and control board if used, it would be desirable to wirelessly connect a network node to the local network to monitor and/or gather information and even communicate the information to responsible parties. It would also be desirable to minimize the complexity of the local network by having the network node perform the functions of the control board in addition to its monitoring and information gathering functions. Furthermore, it would be desirable to wirelessly connect more than one local network to the network node to create a larger global network that can be monitored at one location remote from the local networks and even remote from the network node.